Smart Missile retires to Arrowfield Stud
Superstar colt Smart Missile has been retired from racing and will begin his stud career in 2012 at Arrowfield Stud.
Pictured: Glen Boss’ astonishment at Smart Missile’s performance in the ATC Run to the Rose H. G3 was obvious. (PHOTO: Sportpix)
“The best raw talent I have seen since Redoute’s Choice,” is how Arrowfield chairman John Messara describes the brilliant son of Fastnet Rock.
“In our view, he was clearly the best two-year-old of a stellar generation, with the best of him not seen at three. Smart Missile made the impossible look easy, and in our view it’s that X factor which separates the exceptional from the merely outstanding.
“Smart Missile is absolutely everything we look for in a stallion prospect. I am delighted that his breeder and owner Mr Eduardo Cojuangco has entrusted the management of his stud career to Arrowfield.”
Trained by Anthony Cummings, Smart Missile’s brief six start career provided some thrilling highlights which firmly established him as a star of the first magnitude.
Unbeaten at two, Smart Missile won the AJC Breeders’ Plate 1000m LR on debut by a decisive 1.5 lengths, despite being slowly away and racing very greenly in the straight, defeating amongst others the recent Hobartville S. G2 winner Wild and Proud and G1 performers Darci Be Good and Induna.
Smart Missile resumed in the autumn and became the only horse to defeat Sepoy at two when he swept past that colt and Foxwedge to take the ATC Todman S. 1200m G2 – neither colt able to match Smart Missile’s devastating 10.95s sectional between the 400m and 200m marks.
Consequently Smart Missile was vying for favouritism with Sepoy in the Golden Slipper, but was dramatically scratched at the barrier after getting his leg caught over an upright. It was a tragic blow for connections who were left pondering what might have been after Sepoy’s facile victory in his absence.
Smart Missile returned at three as an odds-on favourite in the ATC Run to the Rose H. 1200m G3, where he was last turning for home, and once again unleashed an unbelievable burst of speed to run down Foxwedge, Helmet and Karuta Queen. Jockey Glen Boss said afterwards, “He is quite possibly one of the best horses I have ever thrown a leg over, unbelievable what he has done.”
Arrowfield’s Bloodstock Manager Jon Freyer says, “Smart Missile is a son of the leading sire Fastnet Rock and he is, in our view, most definitely the best of his sire’s male progeny. His turn of foot was visually quite remarkable and is confirmed by examination of the sectional times he ran. Although he was narrowly and unluckily beaten in the Group 1 Golden Rose, it was an amazing performance and confirmed to most his status as an elite Group 1 quality horse.”
Smart Missile’s dam Comical Smile (USA) is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Northern Meteor. The female family traces to the blue hen mare Rough Shod, also ancestress of major sires Sadler’s Wells, Nureyev and Fairy King.
Smart Missile’s 2012 service fee will be announced shortly.
